The Latest in How to Build Muscle, Muscle Building and Weight Lifting |
This is How to Build Muscle Mass Phase 3My ADVANCED Weight Lifting Routine is now available! And, AS PROMISED, completely FREE. No sign ups, registrations or email addresses required. To reap the full benefits of your efforts, you should start with Phase 1 and make the jump to Phase 2 when your body and if your mind says so.But for those that have decided that muscle building is a life style they identify with the Phase 3 plan is now uploaded. As weight lifting routines go, it's not complicated, just demanding and effective, if you have learned the principals of the first 2 phases. There is more info to come, relative to exercise descriptions, modifiers and so on. But the "meat" (I love making protein references) is here. Are You a Phase 3 Weight Lifter? |
New! March 9th
Weight Lifting Routines: Ask Mr.Olympia, What's the best repetition speed?
Now your first thought might be, "this is way to advanced for me to be concerned about", especially if the response is from Ronnie Coleman. But the truth is, you'd be wrong! His advice is fantastic and probably is more useful for a beginner or less experienced lifter, because you haven't developed your own "feel" for training yet. I have to say, this thought doesn't really enter my head as I am training, but knowing now how Coleman answers makes what I do naturally clearer and does give me a "mental trigger" for various training methods. I am also fond of saying "you want to know how to train and what works? Watch the biggest guy and copy his effort and attitude, you can't go wrong. I'd say Ron Coleman "qualifies" as the "biggest guy" no? |
New! Feb 28th
Weight Lifting Routines: Wrist Straps?The answer to the age old question, to use or not?
The use of wrist straps has been debated amongst gym rats for years. You see pictures of very large men using them and not. Normally I would say it comes down to a personal choice, whatever you think helps you lift more is what you should do. Some people say they "hurt" their wrists to use them. Others say "no pain, no gain".
![]() You would think by now there would be a definitive study done to know whether you actually build more muscle using them verses not. Turns out there is. I am not sure how scientific it is, but when experts in muscle building say they have tested it on "world class lifters", well, good enough for me. Here's a 2:30 minute video that clears up the debate. In case you're curious, I use them. |
I have to admit that I cheat a LOT training biceps. It's because I use more weight than I can perform STRICT reps for. I still think (because it was the only thing that worked for me), that heavy is the way to go.
New! Feb 21st
Your Fitness Grocery ListTo fuel your body right, fill your basket with these 15 top foods for fit men and women
Let's get one thing straight. The single biggest difference maker in your health is what you eat. Period. Starting a weight training plan without providing yourself with the right fuels, will only lead to frustration and failure. Why bother?Here's my thinking, at least learn to eat the right things, we can work on eating the right amount later. You will simply not believe the difference in your energy level, mood and overall disposition that what you feed yourself makes. And at no time will you ever read here that rewarding yourself with your favorite indulgence (and eating a lot of it too, I might add) isn't okay, as long as the rest of the time you eat well. Oh, and work on muscle building. I dare anyone to say that after checking out this shopping list that food thats good for you can't be good as well. |
More proof positive of my beliefs that muscle building is the BEST long term way to handle weight issues. Here is the expert's description of how to use my Phase 1 lifting theories to burn fat verses build mass.
New! Feb 10th
5 Easy Steps to Lose Belly FatAre you suffering from excess belly fat that won't budge no matter what you do? Have the flashy infomercials convinced you that your belly fat is directly related to stress and that they have the miracle pill that will get rid of it with no effort on your part? Are clever marketing ads suggesting your can rid your stubborn belly fat by investing in their "breakthrough" ab-machine? Not only is belly fat unattractive, it's unhealthy.Let's face it. You've tried everything and nothing has worked thus far. Stop playing games with yourself. This is your body and your health, and it's about time you got the TRUTH about how to lose belly fat. 5 Easy Steps to Lose Belly Fat |
I recently authored an article about how you can shock body parts into faster growth for a short term boost (A 1 Month Arm Building Weight Lifting Routine). As you might expect if you frequent this site, is to discover it centers on using heavy compound exercises. In this case, "heavy" to the tune of your entire body weight.
New! Feb 7th
How to Tighten your Oblique’sYou should know by now that variety is not only the spice of life, but also the way to keep a weight lifting routine working. By variety I mean, not necessarily changing everything, but changing something. By definition a routine is just that. Something done again and again. Hence, routine. But altering things, just a little, from workout to workout, can have huge results.There are so many great ab exercises to chose from that staying with a consistent pattern of training abs would be criminal. It is one of the few body parts where there are actually so many variations of “how to build your six pack” that staying with the same movements for more than a week or two should be easy to avoid. No matter how you package it, a bicep curl, is still a bicep curl. But ab work? Almost limitless. How to Tighten Your Oblique's |
How to Build Muscle by Weight Lifting - Phase 1Building Muscle Phase 1 |
Are You A Phase 2 Weight Lifter?Muscle building is a continuum. There is no “end” to it. No matter who you are, you can have more muscle than you do. You can be more fit than you are.It has nothing to do with AGE, sex or most importantly, your current physical state.
So, of course, people today look at Coleman and repeat “how can anybody be any bigger and better?” But they can, and they will. Coleman himself improved dramatically from his first title through his last, 8 years later, and he was not a "young" man. The point is, if bodies as developed as Arnold was and Coleman is, can still build more muscle, safe to say you can to. Are You A Phase 2 Weight Lifter? Are You a Phase 3 Weight Lifter? |

The 5 Most Common Muscle Building MistakesThe first and probably the most common is doing too many reps. If doing a lot of reps was the way to build size wouldn’t carpenters have arms like Arnold did? Or wouldn’t marathon runners have huge legs? Only doing high rep (anything over 8) work outs will NEVER allow you to add size and mass. Secondly most people do not use enough weight. This is partially because of the high rep counts they do. The idea of “lifting big to get big” seems so obvious, yet few do it. Who is bigger and stronger, the person who lifts 500 lbs once or the person who lifts 100 lbs 5 times? They both move 500 lbs of weight, but the mass building effect of each is totally different. You will NEVER add mass or get stronger if you don’t try lifting weight amounts that you presently can’t! How does anybody ever think their muscles will grow to handle loads that they never try to lift? It is the essence of muscle building! Thirdly, most people lack the workout routine necessary to build muscle. The workouts they do seem to have no rhyme or reason. Building muscle requires a plan. Your workouts should follow that plan. You can not show up at the gym and begin doing stuff and expect it to have a positive effect on your physique. Until you adopt a muscle building plan and stick to it any gain you get will be by sheer effort and luck. The fourth common error I see is you can not, efficiently build mass and lose weight/fat at the same time. One, the other, but most likely both, will fail. This means lifting for mass gains and doing a lot of cardio exercise simultaneously will undermine your efforts. And not why you think. It has nothing to do with calorie burn. Adding muscle to your body requires a MAXIMUM effort in the weight room. If you have the energy to do a bunch of cardio before or after your lifting, then you left mass building in the gym. You should be physically spent after a muscle building session. And most definitely don’t dilute a lifting session by doing cardio first. The last common mistake I see people make is related to the previous one. Some people try to make the case that cardio workouts done on non-lifting days is the answer to the above problem. I will say it’s better than doing it the same day, but the truth really is that you need to rest 100% on your non-lifting days because it is on these days that your muscles actually do their growing. Allowing your muscles to recover is the only way you are strong enough to go back in the gym and lift more than you did before. Which is what muscle building is all about, isn’t it? |

Visitor's Top Choices: The "Best Of" MuscleandHealth |
I didn't really start having any success as a weight lifter (success defined as actually adding muscle mass to my body)
until I was 40. So my lifting style and philosophies are shaped by that. Clearly they are different than when I was younger, but for me, different in that I was NOT a successful muscle builder as a younger man.
How Much Protein Do You Really Need to Build MuscleI can not believe the amount of misinformation there is on this topic. Depending on your source you will read everything from the governments RDA of .36 gram per pound of body weight, to some bodybuilding sites that go as high as 2 grams per pound and everything in between. The answer is “in between”.But there is more to it than that. Once you have a little understanding it’s quite simple to figure out the right amount of protein that YOU need to add lean muscle mass....... How Much Protein Do You Really Need to Build Muscle |
Weight Lifting Routines: How Much Rest to Take Between SetsWeight lifting routines are comprised of the exercises you’ll do combined with the amount of sets and reps. But there is another component and it might just be the most important. How much time to rest between each set.If you read each of my three muscle building plans, you will see that I offer a recommended number of sets and reps per set, but make no mention of the time to rest between each set. I DO give a time frame for how much rest to take between each workout and body part. Why do you suppose that is? How Much Rest to Take Between Sets |
Phase 3 Lifters Only! This is a very advanced routine!|
|